The first full-length teaser for Star Trek: Into Darkness was unleashed upon the web today and warns that Kirk may get everyone on his ship killed. Benedict Cumberbatch's villain must have something to do with it.

The official full-length Star Trek Into Darkness trailer won't be released until next Friday, when The Hobbit comes out, but this teaser for JJ Abrams' second crack at the beloved franchise gives fans plenty of bits and pieces to chew on.

Watch Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew battle a new villain rumored to be wrathful Khan AFTER THE JUMP.

Congrats to the fabulous gay man, excellent actor, hilarious Facebook photo-poster, and all-around mensch George Takei on his big weekend. Not only is today the 46th birthday of Star Trek -- the show on which Takei became famous as Mr. Sulu, maybe the first heroic TV role ever given to a Japanese American -- but this is also the first weekend of previews for Allegiance, a new musical by Jay Kuo, Marc Acito, and Lorenzo Thione, in which George Takei stars at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre.

Allegiance is an epic
story of family, love and patriotism set during the Japanese American
internment of World War II. Sixty years after the attack on Pearl
Harbor, a chance meeting forces WWII veteran Sam Kimura (television and
film star George Takei) to remember his family's relocation from their
California farm to the Heart Mountain internment camp. As they struggle
to adjust to their new home, Young Sam (Telly Leung – Godspell, "Glee") and his sister Kei (Lea Salonga, Tony Award winner for Miss Saigon)
find themselves torn between loyalty to their family and allegiance to
their country. With its moving score, ALLEGIANCE takes audiences on a
journey into our nation's history through the eyes of one American
family.

As it happens, Mr. Takei spent a portion of his childhood in one of the United States' Japanese internment camps. Here you can hear him discuss the experience on PRI's The World. And AFTER THE JUMP, you can hear one of Allegiance's songs and view some photos from rehearsal.

Producer/writer Barannon Braga opens up to After Elton on why there were never any gay characters on any of the Star Trek shows and films he has worked on. Obviously, he's not speaking about the original show here, but about the The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise as well as two of the films in the 1990's, Generations and First Contact.

"It was a shame for a lot of us that ... I’m talking about The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and there was a constant back and forth about well how do we portray the spectrum of sexuality. There were people who felt very strongly that we should be showing casually, you know, just two guys together in the background in Ten Forward. At the time the decision was made not to do that and I think those same people would make a different decision now because I think, you know, that was 1989, well yeah about 89, 90, 91. I have no doubt that those same creative players wouldn’t feel so hesitant to have, you know, have been squeamish about a decision like that."

He goes on, referring to the people involved on the The Next Generation non-progressive thinkers.

"I think it was, not so much a young man’s [issue], it was a syndicated family show, showing at six o’clock, you know, in Salt Lake City, so you had to deal with each separate affiliate rather than one network. And things like that. It was not a forward thinking decision. Knowing the players involved, knowing the decision makers, knowing it was that they felt reluctant about, you know, we’re not saying “yes,” we’re not saying “no,” we’re not just not going to touch that right now."

Maybe that's why Trekkies have sometimes had to resort to "creating" their own gay characters on the show.

While there aren't any gay characters on Terra Nova, the new FOX show Braga is executive-producing alongside Stephen Spielberg, that might change. He tells After Elton, who pointed this out to him: "I’m glad you bring it up because it’s something we should be attending to."